


Corvine

by cassowarykisses



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Lesbian Relationship, F/F, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Post-Canon, the raven queen recruits sloane au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 15:02:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10538877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassowarykisses/pseuds/cassowarykisses
Summary: Sloane meets the Raven Queen. The Raven Queen makes an offer.





	

**Author's Note:**

> corvine - (adj.) of or like a raven or crow, especially in color.
> 
> If gay characters are going to die, gay characters will rule the afterlife.

Sloane’s eyes snapped open.

The sash was gone, and so was her body. Her form was shadelike and transparent, a refraction of flickering light in the shape of person.

Hurley was nowhere to be seen.

“Hurley?” Sloane called out. “Hurley!” She spun around, but the world was a dark, drab gray that extended beyond the horizon. Her voice sounded wrong to her ears, muffled, maybe, or like it was moving slower through the air.

“She is not here,” came a voice from behind her, where she had just been facing a moment ago and where she had been damn sure there was nothing. The voice neither quiet nor loud; it was a sound beyond volume. The words existed at her, rather than being spoken to her. She struggled to articulate the difference, but understanding it suddenly seemed like life or death to her.

_I should find a different expression_ , Sloane thought, and the idea, bleak as it was, made her want to laugh. She turned around, and faced the being behind her.

There was a figure there, as grey as the world, but standing out against it nevertheless. Sloane recognized her. The Raven Queen gazed down on her, eyes peering down over her long iron beak. Her body looked like it made of marble worn smooth by time, but she could tell without being told it would be warm with magic to the touch. The only color on her came from the pin feathers that covered her body, black as the rest of her, but which reflected the light of Sloane’s form.

Sloane stared, then summoned every ounce of irreverence and disrespect that had inspired Hurley to chase her in the first place. “What do you want from me?”

“You’re dead,” said the voice. The Raven Queen’s mouth didn’t move, but it was unmistakably her. “What I want with you should be entirely obvious.” She sounded amused.

“This isn’t what I’ve heard the Astral Plane looks like,” Sloane retorted. “And I’ve met at least one necromancer. And before you ask, I won’t sell them out.”

The Raven Queen cawed. It could have been a laugh or a rebuke, but Sloane fell silent either way.

“You were cut down too soon, Sloane. There is an interference in the world that even I struggle to see around, and you fell into the middle of it, my little namesake.”

Sloane found her voice. “But what do you want from me?” she said, words falling heavily from her mouth in the thick air of the Astral Plane.

“I want you to join the ranks of my Reapers,” said the Raven Queen. “Serve me, and I will give life as best I can. Your body will breathe. It will feel. It can smile.”

“Hurley too,” Sloane said.

“Hmm?” said the Raven Queen.

“My partner,” Sloane said, stepping forward. “She has to come with me.” She didn’t say, _I went without her once, and look how that turned out_ , but she figured the Raven Queen probably already knew.

“She is as important as life to you?” the Raven Queen asked.

“Life is as important as Hurley to me,” Sloane said, and this time the Raven Queen did laugh.

“Very well,” she said, and knelt before Sloane. Even kneeling, Sloane had to crane her neck to meet her eyes.

The Raven Queen leaned in close to her and whispered, “Close your eyes.”

Sloane obeyed, and braced herself for the coldness of that beak against her neck, if she could even feel anything in this form. Instead, she felt a kiss on her brow, soft and warm like flesh, not magic, and gasped as that same warmth flowed into her. She hadn’t even realized the absence of her life until it was filled.

But the Raven Queen broke the kiss before she felt fully alive again. “That is what I can do for you,” the Raven Queen said. “Open your eyes, my Reaper.”

Sloane looked up at the Raven Queen, back in her raven-beaked guise.

“Tell me what I need to do to get Hurley back,” Sloane said, meeting her eyes.

“Take up your weapon,” said the Raven Queen.

Sloane opened her mouth to ask, _what weapon_ , and _isn’t my whip back in the material plane_ , but before she finished she sensed the heavy weight of a scythe in her hands. It felt right to her. When she closed her eyes, she saw a battlefield, dark with ravens, and knew that she could wield it.

She swung it heavily – inexpertly, but better than she could have a moment ago, and the blade pulled across reality, a clean, clear cut that left her staring out into an ocean, shimmering with the light of millions of souls.

“Now go, and find your partner.”

And Sloane did.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Corvine [PODFIC]](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12316464) by [codeswitch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/codeswitch/pseuds/codeswitch)




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